


First Sight

by sofia_estrella



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 13:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15820173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofia_estrella/pseuds/sofia_estrella
Summary: Jared volunteers to beta-test a new gay dating app, and Richard becomes a little obsessed.





	First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> A slight AU in which the gay dating app 1stSight continues its development with Richard's support.

The first Octopiper to get to beta testing was 1stSight, the gay ( _not_ Christian) dating app. At the launch meeting, DeeDee asked around for people to invite to the beta. Richard shifted uncomfortably, “I don’t really have any gay friends…” Dinesh and Gilfoyle each suggested that the other use the beta test, and descended into a squabble. 

Jared piped up: “I hope you aren’t calling each other gay as an insult.”

They both denied it profusely. “Yeah, don’t be homophobic, Gilfoyle.” And they descended into squabbling again. 

Jared, then: “Well, I could beta-test the app and pass it on to some of my friends.” His timid voice cut through Dinesh and Gilfoyle’s arguing and everyone was quiet.

Richard’s brow furrowed. “Jared, you’re not gay, though.”

“Yeah, you fucked that girl in the garage!” Dinesh said, in an accusatory tone. 

Jared flinched. “Do we need to review our sexual harassment policy?” 

That effectively ended the conversation. Jared downloaded the beta app, and sent the link to five “friends.” Richard watched as he typed in each of the email addresses. The room was silent except for Jared’s typing. When he sent the last email, all eyes were on Richard. 

He started. “Um. Yeah. Okay. We’re done here.” 

Jared packed up his laptop and was the first one out the door. After a moment, Richard followed after him, breaking into a slight jog down the hall. “Jared! Jared.” 

Jared turned around. “Richard?”

Richard caught up to him, and leaned against the wall. “Hey, bud. Look… sorry if it got weird in there.”

“I understand. It can sometimes be hard to keep professional boundaries when we’re such close friends outside of the office.

“Uh, yeah. I guess.”

“But now that we’re in a more private setting, I don’t mind being candid. Truth be told, I’m bisexual.”

Richard tried to put his hands in the pockets of his hoody, missed, and ended up crossing his arms. “Cool. That’s — cool. That’s great.” He swallowed hard, uncrossed his arms, and rocked back and forth on his feet. 

Jared smiled. “It’s great to be able to be open about who I am. I have had some—” his eyes got that faraway look in them, “— _bad_ coming out experiences in the past, so it can be scary to open up like this. Thanks, Richard.” Jared patted his shoulder and turned away to continue walking down the hall. 

Richard tugged the strings of his hoody as he watched Jared walk away. 

*

The next morning, Richard came into the office to see Jared standing in the kitchenette, absorbed in his phone. Richard paused by the counter. “Hey, Jared.” 

Jared barely glanced up as he said good morning. 

Richard placed his hands on the counter, tapping his fingers. “Are you… on that app? Are you finding guys… dudes, to, uh—?” Richard looked over to Dinesh and Gilfoyle, who were too far away to hear, and added, “This guy fucks, right? He…” 

Jared barely reacted, except to lift his head from his phone. “No, Richard, I’m reading my email.” 

“Oh… Well, have you checked out the app yet?”

“I explored the interface a little last night.”

Richard forced a smile, and mimed punching Jared’s arm from across the counter. “The _interface_. Yeah… okay. You little… uh, you little minx.”

Jared didn’t seem to recall the time just a few days ago that he had called Richard a minx. “Do you want a tea, Richard?”

“Um. Yeah, sure. Thanks.” After a long beat, Richard turned to go to his office, as Jared busied himself making tea. Once he had the door closed behind him, he groaned and rubbed his temples. 

*

After the next Octopiper meeting, Richard pulled DeeDee aside. “Hey, man… Could I—could I get a link to 1stSight’s beta? I’d really like to… see the interface. Nothing gay! I just want to… look around a little. At the app! Not the guys.”

“Um. Yeah, I’ll send you the link.”

Once Richard had downloaded the app, he realized that he would have to create a public account to view any of the other guys—or, the _interface_ , rather. After a moment of deliberation, he downloaded the Facebook profile picture of a guy from his class at Stanford—he’s probably gay, anyway—and proceeded with a fake account. 

There were only a few dozen users at this point so it didn’t take him long to find Jared.

He had a good photo. Not a selfie—someone else had taken his photo at a cafe. He was reading a book next to a window, bathed in soft sunlight. It was a really good photo. Richard felt his stomach flip a little wondering who it was that took that photo. 

Jared’s bio was short and sweet: “Hello, I’m Jared. I’m the COO of Pied Piper. Let’s get coffee, or see a movie, or go birdwatching.” 

Suddenly, Richard’s phone pinged and a chat icon popped up in the app. An icon of Jared. Shit. Richard glanced out of his window. Jared was sitting at his desk, bent over his phone. Richard, remembering that he was undercover, clicked on the chat icon. 

Jared: Hey, Greg! How are you?

Richard looked again at Jared, who had put his phone on his desk and was now typing on his laptop. He sighed and typed back.

Greg: Hi Jared. I'm good. You?

Throughout the rest of the workday, Jared kept the conversation going, asking “Greg” about his job and interests. Richard was abysmal at small talk, and having to lie did not make things easier. Greg worked as an engineer at Uber, but he shared his tech expertise with Richard.

Jared: It sounds like you have a similar background as my friend Richard.

Jared: Well, friend and boss.

Jared: Richard Hendricks. The CEO of Pied Piper.

Jared: He’s kind of my roommate right now too haha

Richard smiled as the messages came in. He looked out of his office, at Jared, who again placed his phone face-up on his desk and turned his attention to his laptop. Richard was suddenly struck with how weird this was, and put his phone in his pocket. Time to get back to work. 

At the end of the day, Richard checked his messages again. Two from Jared, and one from some other guy.

Jared: Sorry to babble. I just really love my job!

Jared: How did you get into this beta? Do you know DeeDee?

Richard decided the risk was small, and said yes. 

Jared: Do you want to meet up for coffee sometime this week? It doesn’t have to be a date, really. We could just talk about the beta.

Jared: Actually I should introduce you to Richard, you two have so much in common!

_Shit_. Richard stared at his phone, racking his brain for an excuse. Greg is gonna be out of town? He’s sick? He’s dead? He jumped at a knock on his door. It was Jared. Richard fumbled to put his phone away.

“Sorry to startle you, Richard. Will you be staying at my condo tonight?” 

This was all too much. Richard ran a hand through his hair. “Uh. Yeah. No. Maybe. I dunno.”

“Well, I’ll make the pull-out for myself, just in case you decide to stay over.”

Richard opted for avoidance. Greg ghosted Jared, and Richard crashed at Bighead’s. 

*

Richard sat in his office, staring at the unanswered messages from Jared from the previous day.

Jared: Sorry if I seemed like I was coming on too strong! I’m really just interested in talking with you about your experience with the app so far.

Jared: Are you receiving my messages? If there’s a bug, now’s the time to work it out! 

He sighed and began typing a response:

Greg: So sorry. Been slammed recently. App is working fine!

Jared messaged back far too quickly. Wasn't he supposed to be working? Did he spend all day on gay dating apps? 

Jared: Good to hear! What do you think about meeting up to discuss the app? I’d love to put together a focus group of users early on. 

Greg: I’m going to be out of town for a while, actually. May not work.

Jared: Where to? 

Greg: Seattle. Business trip. 

Jared: Ohh, lovely! Well, we wouldn’t have to do the focus group for a couple weeks yet. When do you get back? 

Richard leaned back in his chair. He was digging himself into a hole, but he could keep digging. 

Greg: Next Monday. 

Jared: Ok! I’ll be in touch. 

Jared: That’s enough shop talk… What do you like to do outside of work?

Richard found it hard to believe that Jared had interests outside of work, but he began to enjoy making small talk with him over the next couple days. They talked about movies and music, Silicon Valley gossip… Richard googled a few spots in Seattle so he could keep the lie alive. 

Toward the end of the week, though, Jared stopped texting back. Richard was confused — Every time he saw Jared on his phone, he expected to receive a notification, but never got one. Who else was he talking to? Richard, usually not one to double-text, decided to send another prompt:

Greg: I checked out that cafe you recommended. In Seattle. Really good!

Through his office window, Richard watched Jared pick up his phone. He stared at his phone for a minute or two, then stood up and went over to Gilfoyle’s desk. Jared showed him the phone, and Gilfoyle actually took off his headphones to listen to whatever he was saying. When Gilfoyle took Jared’s phone and began typing on it, Richard could stand it no longer. He rushed out of his office.

“Hey, guys. What’s going on over here?”

“I’m catching a catfish,” Gilfoyle said, not looking up from the phone. 

“Uh… what?”

Jared explained: “As you know, I’m part of the beta test for DeeDee’s app 1stSight.”

Richard scratched his head. “Oh, are you? Oh — yeah, right. I remember.”

“I was messaging someone who claimed to be one of DeeDee’s friends. But I was talking to DeeDee about putting together a focus group with the beta users, and it turns out he doesn’t know this guy at all.”

Richard’s skin felt hot and prickly. “Well… Could be that someone else sent him the link to the beta.” 

Jared continued: “I found the real Greg on Facebook, and he’s never heard of the app. He’s not even gay! Someone is using his photos and pretending to be him.” 

“Well, it’s a dating app, what do you expect?” 

Jared cocked his head. “It’s fewer than fifty users on the beta right now. You have to admit it’s weird that someone would do this.” 

Gilfoyle plugged Jared’s phone into his monitor, eyes darting around as the lines of code scrolled past. “Hmm. Looks like the last message from ‘Greg’ was sent from … here, basically. Maybe even inside this office.” He spun around in his chair, looking as excited as was probably possible for Gilfoyle. “Should we find out who it was?”

Richard fumbled for his phone, just as Gilfoyle hacked into the “find my phone” function. Richard’s phone began blaring his ringtone at full volume. Jared’s jaw dropped a little, and Gilfoyle leaned back in his chair, looking pleased. 

“Gotta … take this,” Richard said, pretending it was a call, and racing away. “Goddamn it, how do you … turn this off,” he muttered as he retreated into the stairwell. The door opened again, just as he was able to mute the phone.

“Hello? Yes, this is Richard.” He saw Jared in his peripheral vision. “Hello? Ah…” He looked up at Jared, and pretended to hang up. “One of those… automated calls.”

Jared smiled a little and leaned back against the stairwell door. “They asked if it was Richard on an automated call? Seems pretty advanced.”

“What?”

“You said—”

“Oh, yeah. Well. AI these days.” Richard took a couple steps up, but Jared didn’t move. “I should…” 

“You could have just done the beta, Richard. You didn’t have to catfish Greg.”

“I don’t think that’s the right usage of the term.”

“Hm?”

“You ‘catfish’ the person you’re talking to, so if anything I was catfishing you. That is… can it be used as a verb? Yeah. Yeah it’s a verb.” 

After a beat of silence, Jared: “Ok, well. I don’t understand why you had to catfish anyone. You could have just made an account as yourself to see how the app worked. It’s not like you had to go on a date.”

“Well, whatever. I wanted to be anonymous.” Richard adjusted his stance a little, taking a cautious glance up to Jared. “ _You_ didn’t have to be so pushy. You really had to… get Gilfoyle to, like, hack into my phone? Like some fucking… stalker.”

Jared’s eyebrows raised. “I’m the stalker? You were messaging me for days, _knowing_ it was me, but you let me stay in the dark? Why didn’t you just tell me, ‘Hey it’s Richard, I made this fake account so I could check out a gay dating app — nothing weird about that.’” 

“I don’t know, I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea, I guess.”

“The wrong — ? Richard, you’ve been treating me… frankly, like shit since I came out to you. You’ve barely talked to me — except on some catfish account — you won’t stay over at my condo anymore. I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable that I’m attracted to men, but honestly… I thought you were better than that.” 

_Shit_ … Richard couldn’t think of anything to say, and after a moment Jared turned and left the stairwell. _Fuck_. 

*

The rest of the day was awful. Jared worked diligently at his desk, always within Richard’s sight. Gilfoyle came into Richard’s office to report on his progress; he didn’t say anything, but that was almost worse. 

Toward the end of the day, Richard texted Bighead: 

Richard: Hey I’m gonna crash with you again tonight

Bighead: Hey man… I’m sorry but I’ve got a date. Can you stay with Jared tonight?

He couldn’t stay with Gilfoyle. And Dinesh had probably heard the news by now. Maybe now was a good time to stop being homeless. Richard glanced up as Jared was leaving, and they briefly made eye contact. He had to deal with this at some point, and since he needed someplace to stay… there’s no time like the present. 

Richard caught up with Jared in the stairwell, same spot they were yesterday, but traded places. “Jared, wait.”

Jared turned around and looked up at Richard. 

“Look, I’m really sorry. I’m not… homophobic, or anything. I mean, I backed DeeDee’s app, right?”

One of the coders came into the stairwell, and awkwardly made her way down while Jared and Richard waited. 

“Ok, so you’re not homophobic,” Jared said. “You’re still not being a very good friend. And I just… feel really weird about this. I don’t know why you would lie to me like that.”

“I don’t know either.” Richard put up his hand to stop another coder from entering the stairs. “Elevator, we have an elevator. Fucking Silicon Valley, with the stand-up desks and taking the stairs four flights…”

Jared smiled a little. “A sedentary lifestyle is just as bad for you as smoking.”

“Yeah, ‘if not worse,’ I know.” Richard sat down against the door, and Jared settled down a few steps below him. They were both facing the same direction, and the lack of eye contact made it easier for Richard to be honest. “I don’t really care about the app. Like, participating in a beta is way beneath my pay grade.”

“Okay,” Jared said patiently.

“I just… I don’t know. I was really thrown for a loop by what you told me. That you’re, you know. Into dudes.”

“I’m bi.”

“Yeah,” Richard laughed. “The being into dudes part of that is what… surprised me, I guess.”

“Most people are surprised that I’m attracted to women.”

“Maybe ‘surprised’ isn’t the right word, but. Anyway. You were right. I’m… basically a stalker. I only went on the app to see your profile, and then you messaged me and I guess I just panicked.” 

Jared had shifted up a few more steps as Richard spoke, so that he was now perched on the first step, only a few feet from him but still facing forward.

“That’s a relief,” Jared said softly.

“A relief? That your boss has, like, a weird crush on you or something? That’s an HR nightmare.” Richard winced, but he was only putting into words what was already painfully obvious. 

“I thought you were… I don’t know.” Jared drew in a breath. “Mocking me. For my feelings.”

“Feelings?” Richard echoed quietly.

Jared turned around and the sudden eye contact left Richard a little stunned so he barely reacted as Jared leaned forward, propped up on his hands, and kissed him. 

After a moment, Richard lifted a hand off the floor and put it to Jared’s head, twisting his fingers in his hair. He leaned into the kiss a little, and —

His head was smacked by the stairwell door opening behind him. Richard and Jared looked up at Dinesh (wide-eyed) and Gilfoyle (smirking). Richard groaned; he could hear them whispering as they rushed off to the elevator. 

Jared, standing up now, offered a hand to Richard. “I was thinking about dinner.”

“Just now? Good to know I’m boring.”

“Not at all.” Jared pulled Richard up to his feet. “But maybe Thai?” 

“That sounds good.” They were still holding hands. “Also, um. I still sort of need somewhere to stay. Bighead’s, uh. Busy tonight.”

Jared blinked a few times. “Did you only clear the air with me to avoid being homeless?” 

“Well, it kind of lit a fire under my ass. I’m glad I did, though.” He squeezed Jared’s hand. “Thai sounds great.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously I know nothing about hacking so bear with me on the description of whatever Gilfoyle did. (But accurate hacking isn't why you're here, now is it?) 
> 
> I meant to write this when the 5th season was on air, but better late than never! Please leave a note to let me know what you think! (Also, I tried to refrain from describing all of Richard's body movements, but he's just so fidgety, I love him.)


End file.
